ALBANY —Michael “Murder” Hoffler won’t be getting a third trial for double jeopardy in a notorious murder-for-hire plot.
The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court on Thursday found no reason to overturn Hoffler’s 2016 conviction for ordering the killing of Albany police informant Christopher Drabik, rejecting his argument that he should not have been tried a second time after his first conviction was tossed because the jury at his original trial in 2004 was not properly sworn in.
Before Hoffler’s second trial went ahead in 2016, he failed to convince the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals to block the trial on the grounds it violated his Constitutional protections against being tried multiple times for the same crime. The court ruled the case could go ahead because the evidence “at the first trial was legally sufficient to support the conviction.”…